Practice Areas

About Naiomi

Naiomi is from the Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation in Quebec. She holds a BA (Dalhousie), an LLB (Dalhousie), an LLL (Ottawa) and an LLM (Osgoode). She was the first Mi’gmaq person to be a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada. She has been named to the Named to Best Lawyer in Canada® list in Aboriginal law since 2015.

With Burchells since 2008, Naiomi is an active member of the firm’s Aboriginal Law practice group, and has appeared before the courts of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and the Federal courts in a number of high profile cases involving our First Nations clients. She also advises Aboriginal clients on a range of governance, employment and human rights issues.

Since July 2016, Naiomi now splits her time between practice and being full-time faculty at the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University where she holds the Chancellor’s Chair in Aboriginal Law and Policy and teaches in the areas of Constitutional Law, Aboriginal Law and Indigenous Governance. As a legal scholar, she is most interested writing about how the law can be harnessed to promote the well-being of Indigenous peoples in Canada and conveying this information in accessible ways.

What drives me as a lawyer is helping communities and individuals prosper in the face of adversity.